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Three fire-hit areas get disaster payments

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced disaster relief payments for three areas of bushfire-hit NSW.

The disaster recovery payments of $1000 for adults and $400 for children will apply to people in the Coonamble, Gilgandra and Warrumbungle local government areas.

Ms Gillard, who visited Coonabarabran on Thursday, said she had witnessed the destructive power of the fires which had turned the area into a "moonscape".

Ms Gillard said the payments were no substitute for insurance.

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"We want to help people out," she said.

"But we do also want to give people the message that in a country as unpredictable as the one we live in, when you never know whether it's going to be fire or flood or something else that hits your home, that it's prudent to be insured."

Ms Gillard acknowledged it was tough for some people on low incomes or in places where insurance is not offered because of risk factors.

Small business owners and farmers who had lost stock in the fires should get in touch with government agencies about other natural disaster payments on offer, she said.